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Senior Trump administration officials had weighed how to structure potential government equity stakes in major AI companies before the government’s export controls on Anthropic further roiled the industry.
Two top Cabinet members had discussed different ideas, people familiar with the talks told Semafor: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent favored using equity in AI firms to seed Trump Accounts, while Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s preference was that any equity be directed to a type of sovereign wealth fund.
The talks about possible AI stakes ceded to the government are still in the early stages, with no decision made yet — and a meeting with industry CEOs that President Donald Trump previewed earlier this month yet to emerge.
Given that, it’s still unclear where the Trump administration could ultimately land on an idea that remains an extremely tough sell for most of the industry beyond OpenAI, which first pitched it last year. Executives at firms like Microsoft and Meta have turned a cold shoulder in the last week alone.
The administration’s crackdown on the latest models from Anthropic may also complicate equity talks. Trump told reporters last week that he would convene “the top 12 or 15 executives very shortly” to discuss the AI industry “giving back something to the public,” but Friday’s export controls risk turning any meeting into a more tense affair.
“What AI companies at all levels and structure need is proper guardrails and federal legislation on how we’re going to use artificial intelligence in the government,” Caleb Max, president and CEO of the National Artificial Intelligence Association, said Friday before the Anthropic news broke. “I don’t think it’s infusing cash in them at this point.”
The meteoric success of SpaceX’s IPO recently set the stage for subsequent public offerings from OpenAI and Anthropic, which both could see valuations in the $1 trillion range. That raises further questions for some in Washington about whether industry competitors will ever wind up ceding equity to the administration.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told Semafor the proposal was a “head-scratcher,” adding: “It starts out with my nose wrinkled.” At a recent Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., also raised concerns.
“I don’t mean disrespect when I say this — I’m proud of them, as American entrepreneurs — but I trust them like I trust the rest-stop bathroom,” Kennedy said of AI company leaders.
One AI lobbyist expressed doubt that any AI company — even those who have paid lip service to the idea — would make any real effort to bring it to fruition.
“You do a little bit of a pressure test based on circumstance or whatever and you see that it all falls apart,” the lobbyist said.
The White House, Treasury, and Commerce did not comment for this story, nor did OpenAI or Anthropic.
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Bessent and Lutnick have previously found themselves on different sides of the debate over how the Trump administration should tackle AI.
The Treasury chief, who called in bank CEOs to discuss risks posed by Anthropic’s Mythos model, weighed in heavily ahead of a recent Trump executive order that created a voluntary review process for future AI models. Officials subsequently told Lutnick’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation, which had been doing similar work, to cease its efforts while they implemented the order.
Trump has since tapped Lutnick to play point on the Trump administration’s export controls on Anthropic’s Mythos and a publicly available version, called Fable. The Center for AI’s director, Chris Fall, joined Commerce Undersecretary Jeffrey Kessler and National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross in a Monday meeting with senior Anthropic officials on the matter, people familiar with the meetings told Semafor.
Both secretaries’ preferences have also been floated at various turns by OpenAI and Anthropic. Altman initially envisioned funneling AI returns to Americans via a hybrid of the Alaska Permanent Fund and Trump Accounts, a person familiar with the talks told Semafor. And Anthropic flicked at sovereign wealth funds and “pre-distributive” capital accounts, like Trump Accounts, in a new policy framework released last week.
Yet any AI-seeded sovereign wealth fund would require significant work to flesh out, given that administration officials abandoned the broader concept last year amid concerns over the national debt.
Lutnick, who’s since negotiated other government stakes in companies in a coordinated effort to secure critical-mineral supply chains, has also discussed a “national and economic security fund,” housing investments made by Japan and South Korea as part of trade deals with the US.
Room for Disagreement
While firms like Intel have accepted grants from the US government in exchange for stakes, experts questioned whether a similar arrangement could fly in the AI industry. Its higher valuations mean the government would have to spend more to “make an equity stake a potential play,” the American Enterprise Institute’s Will Rinehart said.
An alternative like a one-time tax would need to be enacted by a largely skeptical Congress.
There’s also the question of how the firms, many of which spend their profits rather than pay them to shareholders, would even be able to pay returns to Americans via a government stake.
“My expectation is that we’re not going to have dividends in any normal sense for a very long time,” Rinehart said. “So if you’re taking some sort of equity share, what does that even mean?”
Eleanor’s view
There are plenty of reasons why a government stake in AI firms will likely never materialize. But that doesn’t mean Trump will give up any time soon, and he has proved — with pitches from a White House ballroom to an Iran investment fund — that he’s a hard person for companies to say no to.
If Trump chooses the stick over the carrot when it comes to AI companies, the export controls on Anthropic could prove a stepping stone on a path to public-sector equity. The president also has a lot competing for his attention. Expect to see AI firms continue speaking out against the idea of equity stakes when asked — and otherwise laying low — as they hope he leaves the idea by the wayside.
Notable
to the administration.NOTUS first reportedAltman’s pitchAFL-CIO President Liz Shuler told last week she’s skeptical of the proposal.SemaforNvidia CEO Jensen Huang told the Associated Press hehasn’t “had a dialogue”with the White House about it.
Reed Albergotti contributed.